Automobile group wants more road funds

Australian drivers are not getting value for money as far as federal funding for safer roads is concerned, an alliance of motoring clubs say.

Around 1400 people are killed on the nation's roads each year - an average of four people a day.

Another 32,500 are hospitalised with serious injuries.

Queensland's Bruce Highway accounted for more than 17 per cent of deaths on the entire national network during 2005-09, an Australian Automobile Association (AAA) study released on Thursday shows.

The highway's 1553 km stretch between Brisbane and Cairns claimed 204 lives during that period.

The 611km stretch of the Pacific Highway from Hexham to Chinderah, New South Wales, was also dangerous, resulting in 128 deaths.

"If you look at the record on the Pacific Highway over a long period of time it obviously carries high volumes of traffic, but the level of accidents, of serious injuries and fatalities on that road are totally unacceptable," AAA executive director Andrew McKellar told reporters in Canberra.

While the federal government had committed to spending $4.1 billion on the road, the duplication of the highway remained only half finished.

"We need to press on with completing those road works on the Pacific Highway, and upgrading that section of our national network," Mr McKellar said.

He pointed out that while the Pacific highway often made news due to fatal accidents, many other roads were just as dangerous.

"They might not get the same headlines, but there are simple things that we can do on our national highway network to radically improve road safety," Mr McKellar said.

Such measures included widening road shoulders in dangerous sections, erecting crash barriers where there were trees, poles or steep embankments and improving road markings.

"All of those things can be done at a fraction of the cost of duplication, but they can make a massive difference in terms of the risk that an individual motorist faces when they drive down a section of our national highway," Mr McKellar said.

Motorists were entitled to have the roads improved because they paid 38 cents tax for every litre of petrol.

But the federal government was only putting 10 cents of that towards road funding, Mr McKellar said.

"If we are going to save lives on our national highway network then we need to continue to invest in safety."